Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – How far has the Clear Creek Amana track program come in the past 733 days?

The Clippers needed half of the opening day of the state track and field meet to answer that question.

Two seasons ago a school-record and a third-place finish in the 4×800 was the state meet highlight for Clear Creek Amana and accounted for half of the Clippers scoring output.

Clear Creek Amana shattered the school record and matched that third-place finish from 2019 I its return to the state meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines on Thursday.

And now the Clippers want more.

“I think this just shows how much the program has grown,” Tom Johnson said. “Two years ago there was a lot of hype around the 4×800, it was a lot about that one event and this year we have a lot left and we know we can do more. I think it shows a lot about the program and the growth that (coach Ben) Robison has made.”

Clear Creek Amana entered the state meet Thursday with more qualifiers, more top-10 seeds and more momentum than it did two years ago.

The Clippers quickly showed how far they had come with an impressive effort in the 4×800.

Gavin Zillyette, Cash Jensen, Brandon Barker and Johnson teamed up to finish third in a new school-record time of 7:59.62.

The time was less than half a second off runner-up ADM (7:59.17) and was nearly six seconds faster than the previous school record of 8:05.58 set in the Clippers’ third-place state finish in 2019.

“Going into it we knew we had a pretty good shot at a medal, top three is what we were looking for,” Zillyette said. “Going against Pella and Newton and a lot of good teams I think we caught ourselves by surprise with that sub-eight.”

Clear Creek Amana cruised to a win at the state qualifying meet in 8:17.13 and entered with the sixth fastest time in 3A this season at 8:13.87.

The goal for Clear Creek Amana was to make a run at 8:05 and the school record.

Zillyette figured it would come down to less than a second. It didn’t.

“We wanted to medal but we didn’t expect anything like what we did today so it feels really good to break that eight-minute mark,” Johnson said. “I think we were shooting more like 8:05 or 8:06 so that is a huge surprise.”

Zillyette got Clear Creek Amana off to a strong start and Jensen and Barker ran in second for the next two legs before handing off to Johnson.

The lone member of the 2019 third-place team the senior secured the fastest time in program history in the event with a strong anchor.

“We all ran close to our best times all season and I have to give a lot of credit to Tom,” Zillyette said. “He’s a great leader and pushes us really hard.”

The 4×800 was a strong start to the meet for a Clear Creek Amana squad that also has top-four times this season in 3A in the sprint medley and distance medley.

“We’ve been able to expand our program and that comes down a lot to the senior leadership we’ve had,” Zillyette said. “Workouts have been great, we’ve pushed ourselves and it’s been great.”

Class 3A Boys

State Track and Field Meet

At Drake Stadium in Des Moines

Team scores – 1. Pella 21.5; 2. ADM 20; 3. North Polk 18; 4. Washington 16; 5. Newton 10; 5. LeMars 10; 5. Charles City 10; 8. Dallas Center-Grimes 8; 8. Dubuque Wahlert 8; 8. Knoxville 8; 12. Clear Creek Amana 6; 23. Solon 2

Individual results (event winners; area competitors)

Discus – 1. Brandon VanderSluis (LeMars) 170-6; 11. Adam Smith (Solon) 143-10

High jump – 1. Ian Collins (Charles City) 6-9; 6. Colton Hoffman (Solon) 5-11; 9. Joshua Loren (CCA) 5-11

400 – 1. Elijah Morris (Washington) 49.53; 10. Brayden Rickertsen (Solon) 50.75; 19. Keyan Gisleson (Clear Creek Amana) 53.07; 20. Cash Jensen (Clear Creek Amana) 53.21; 22. Jeremy Bachus (Solon) 53.38

3,200 – 1. Nate Mueller (ADM) 9:13.84; 12. Brandon Barker (Clear Creek Amana) 9:55.74

4×800 – 1. Pella 7:55.14; 3. Clear Creek Amana (Gavin Zillyette, Cash Jensen, Brandon Barker, Tom Johnson) 7:59.62; 15. Solon (Ben DeValk, Ty Becicka, Michael Yeomans, Tyler Bilskie) 8:24.74

Class 2A Boys

State Track and Field Meet

At Drake Stadium in Des Moines

Team scores – 1. Underwood 22; 2. Tipton 19; 3. Cardinal 12; 4. Bellevue 10; 4. Northeast 10; 4. Des Moines Christian 10; 4. Jesup 10; 4. OABCIG 10; Pella Christian 8; 9. South Hamilton 8; 25. Regina 2

Individual results (event winners; area placers)

Shot put – 1. Carson Lienau (Jesup) 55-0 ½

Long jump – 1. Cooper Dejean (OABCIG) 23-7 ½

400 – 1. Brayden Wollan (Underwood) 47.73; 7. Carson Jensen (Regina) 50.81

3,200 – 1. Brady Griebel (Bellevue) 9:22.83

4×800 – 1. Northeast 8:15.82

 

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